CRITICAL STAGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 14 January 1936, Page 5

CRITICAL STAGE

LONDON NAVAL CONFERENCE BUT FEARS ALLAYED THAT JAPAN WILL WITHDRAW (British Official Wireless) (Received 14th January, 11.25 a.m.) RUGBY, 13th January. A critical stage lias been reached in the London Naval Conference and much importance is attached to the decision to be taken at the next meeting of the conference, which will be held tomorrow. The conference at the last meeting arranged to resume on Friday but in view of the Japanese delegation’s desire to return to their original proposal for common upper limits of total naval tonnage a postponement until this evening was. agreed upon. A further postponement until to-morrow was accepted at the request of the Japanese. It is understood that the postponement was sought by the Japanese delegation in order to offer suggestions providing for adjustments which would take into account variations in vulnerability and the needs for naval defence of the various powers. Newspapers commenting on the subject agree that if the Japanese proposal is put to the vote it will undoubtedly he rejected. They anticipate, however, that the other powers will not force a vote and that the conference will again agree to reserve the common upper limit proposal for further reflection and examination. This would clear the way for the five-power conference to proceed with the problem of qualitative limitation.

Fears that the Japanese might leave the conference if the proposals were not accepted, which had been expressed in some papers recently, appear to have been allayed and the expectation is that the search for an agreement will continue in the spirit of goodwill which has characterised the attitude of all the delegations since the conference opened.